Rahul Gandhi has found his voice—Can Congress match it?
In problem solving, first ideas are usually worthy of being discarded. They tend to be jaded and borrowed, reflecting established patterns of thinking and stereotypes, without bringing the future into the process.
One such first idea appeared in the aftermath of the just
concluded general elections in which the Congress party was left gasping for
air. It should find a substitute for Rahul Gandhi as its president. Some said, the
Congress needs an Amit Shah.
Truth be told, even an Amit Shah would fail at leading the
Congress, because unlike the BJP, it has an array of people with some
intellectual heft, significant domain expertise and an argumentative culture. Lets
not forget - Amit Shah is leading a BJP of ‘disciplined soldiers’ sans people
like Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and others.
The Congress and the political landscape of India needs
Rahul Gandhi for only one vital, and counter-intuitive, reason. Because he embodies a unique contradiction –
that of being fully aware of his extraordinary privilege and yet retain a detached
relationship with a position of power. This contradiction is of a significant
nature because to bear the Nehru-Gandhi legacy isn’t anywhere like being the
offspring of a Chief Minister of a state or a cabinet minister.
And contradictions such as these are not accidental – they
come from a fiercely held value system.
Having been relentlessly disparaged on the dynasty
issue, Rahul Gandhi’s defeat in the
family borough of Amethi, at the hands of BJP’s Smriti Irani, should be a
reprieve, if only in an ironical way. Voters of Amethi have helped him shrug off
accusations of automatic coronations and elite capture.
His detached relationship with power is evident to anyone
who has been watching his public and media interactions. He seems aware that he
is a square peg in a round hole. What he may not be aware of though, is that
this mal-adjustment has the potential to make his presence in Indian politics
of lasting value.
Assertive in a diminutive way, uneasy with grand rhetoric
yet capable of it, a person of pause and self-awareness, more comfortable
sitting with people on a charpai than making manipulative exhortations from
behind the pulpit. When he tries to be any other way , the act degenerates into
a sputter. But when he sheds the need to fit in and doesn’t seem to care for
the stereotype, he shines. After some vacillation between his authentic self
and the manufactured image of a leader, Rahul Gandhi has found his political ‘voice’.
Question is whether his party can match his pitch and note.
In this attempt to refashion politics by being who he is, he
finds himself in a minority within his party. Other congress party leaders who
still retain some consequence appear like power-scroungers of frail intent. Even their boldest public
statements cannot hide their personal greed, in sharp contrast to the history
of the Congress which was built on sacrifice.
Rahul Gandhi seems in readiness to be able to define what a
modern leader of India may look like – especially at a time when India is undergoing
a unique transition to modernity. It is his flock that needs to fall in line or
leave.
The norm of the ultra-muscular, declamatory politician may
soon be unfit to deal with the complex issues India faces such as inequality, public
funding for schools and hospitals, climate change and rapid technological
transitions. A solid square peg is what India may well need to buttress a truly
modern nation in a globalised world.
https://kochipost.com/2019/05/27/rahul-gandhi-has-found-his-voice-can-congress-match-it/
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